Minor League Schedule: 5/9/13

For Indianapolis today, top prospect Gerrit Cole will be on the mound, trying to continue his streak of quality starts after a rough beginning to the season. Also going today are the top two pitchers in starter ERA in the system, Stolmy Pimentel for Altoona and Orlando Castro for West Virginia. All four affiliates won yesterday, a total of five wins with the doubleheader for West Virginia. For a look at the possible starters over the next few weeks, please check out our Probable Pitchers Chart. We have added a Recent Transactions section to the bottom of this page, for all Pirates minor league transactions. A full recap of yesterday’s action can be found here.

Gerrit Cole will make his seventh start of the season tonight. He has pitched a total of 29.1 innings, allowing 21 hits, one home run, 17 walks and he has 21 strikeouts. Cole has a 2.06 BAA and a 1.10 GO/AO ratio. He was having trouble with his single inning pitch counts during his first four starts, leading to early departures in three of those games. Cole has been much more efficient in his last two games, lasting seven innings in his last outing and six in the previous start. His strikeout totals are down from last year and he has an odd game-by-game stat line. In three of his starts he has recorded five strikeouts in each game, in the other three starts, he has picked up two strikeouts each game.

Stolmy Pimentel will make his seventh start of the season tonight. He faced Richmond on the road earlier this year, throwing six shutout innings, while allowing three hits. He set season highs with five walks and eight strikeouts that game. Pimentel has thrown shutout ball in four of his six starts, allowing a total of three earned runs over 36.1 innings. He leads the entire Pirates organization and the Eastern League in ERA. He has a .188 BAA and right-handers are hitting just .119 against him

Matt Benedict will get his sixth start of the season. He has also made one relief appearance. Benedict will try to pick up his first win for Bradenton, a winless streak that stretches back to last year and now has him 0-13 after twenty games. His last two starts have not gone well, a total of 18 hits, 13 runs and six walks over 8.2 innings. He one bright spot on the season has been a 1.64 GO/AO ratio. He has a .339 BAA, with right-handed batters hitting .358 against him.

Orlando Castro will get his seventh start of the season tonight. He has allowed two earned runs or less in all six outings this year, three times throwing shutout ball. Castro has made three starts on the road, allowing one run over 15.2 total innings. In 33 innings this season, he has put up some very impressive numbers. The left-hander has walked just one batter, allowed only one homer and has struck out 29 hitters. He also has a .220 BAA and a 1.46 GO/AO ratio. In his last outing, he threw six shutout innings, giving up three hits, no walks and picking up seven strikeouts.

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.